A perfumery, it was, they made ladies’ toiletries, and yours truly and his pals used to provide the boxes in which the smellies were sold.

I’d spend a fair amount of time at the factory and got to know the management quite well.

They would always be telling me that they never needed to look out for Spurs’ results, as they could tell what had happened over a weekend or the night before the minute they went down to the shop floor.

Bad results in the league meant production levels went right down – if they went out of the cup they were non-existent.

The workers might as well have gone on strike on days like those.

And it reminded me of the conversations we used to have when I heard Andre Villas-Boas having a good old moan last week about the fans’ behaviour at White Hart Lane this season.

Now, I was very lucky. I scored a hat-trick on my debut and I don’t care who you are, you do that and Tottenham fans, any fans, will love you.

Alan Gilzean got the same reception when he joined Spurs and, likewise, they took to Pat Jennings straight away.

There were others, though, who had to work hard – Terry Venables, Alan Mullery, even Jimmy Robertson had to prove they were worthy of wearing the cockerel.

They can be a tough nut to crack on Tottenham High Street and you have to be very lucky, or work extremely hard, to become a firm favourite of theirs as an individual footballer.

Johnny Pratt was one of my team-mates at Tottenham.

He was a jobbing footballer – never a great player, but never a bad one either – and occasionally Bill Nicholson would put him on the bench.

When the old announcer used to say, ‘And today’s substitute is John Pratt’, you’d get this enormous booing that would echo right round the ground.

John would shrug it off and do ?the same again to the unbelievable racket that would greet him later when Bill sent him on.

I used to say: ‘I don’t know why you stay here, John. I’ve got to be honest, I don’t think I could stand that.’ But he never seemed bothered and I had great admiration for the way he coped with the grief they gave him.

I’ve still no idea how he did it and, again, I thought back to Johnny when I heard what Spurs manager Villas-Boas had said.

John’s still involved with tours of the club, I think, and I’ve no doubt he’ll have had a little wry smile when he heard that one as well.

I have to say, that I haven’t got ?a problem with Villas-Boas’ sentiments. Fans pay their money, so they have the right to moan, but the manager has a right to be critical of the supporters if he feels they are unjustly criticising his side. And, in this case, I think they probably are.

He has done a good job there, young AVB, better than I thought he would.

He has assembled a good side who haven’t played a lot together, and who are still there or thereabouts without playing particularly well.

They need a bit of time, that’s all, although that isn’t something you’re always afforded at the Lane.

But it does strike me that Spurs are not playing as well as Chelsea or Arsenal, so there was a bit of frustration creeping in from the fans. Although, by all accounts, the atmosphere was much better for the Capital One Cup win over Hull on Wednesday.

What has changed so much from my days is the type of stick players get now. Back then, it was humorous. Today, it’s much more personal.

During one home game, a stray dog had somehow got on to the pitch, and the referee was forced to stop the game.

Bill Nick wanted to use the time to bring Frank Sewell on as a substitute and someone shouted, ‘Leave Sewell off, Bill, and keep the dog on’. Cue laughter all round the ground.

Fortunately for me, I was never on the receiving end of such jibes – thank heavens for that first-game treble.